TWISTEDWILLOW

If you end up using coal then Your gonna need bigger holes in the tuyere grate, you won’t get enough air flow through that to effectively forge, 

that said it should work decent for Charcoal if your goin that route,

Today me Ash n Max loaded up and went down to Sallisaw for a BBQ lunch and then to Sequoyah’s cabin museum and park, 

I knew he had created the Cherokee syllabary so they would have a written language but I didn’t know he had fought In The the war of 1812, 

John had mentioned here on the forum that he was a blacksmith awhile back and that intrigued me to go visit his homestead

i Learned today that he was also a silversmith and an artist with paint

the cabin was built in 1829 by Sequoyah himself and the hand dug well was dug by him aswell over a spring and had sandstone stacked around it 

I learned that Sequoyah disappeared down in Mexico in search of another band of Cherokees an never returned home, 

his wife sold the homestead to the Blair family and they lived here up till the thirty’s an sold the place to the government and the WPA built a rock wall around the 10 acres and then built a rock building to permanently encase Sequoyah’s cabin for preservation, 

they built a few other things around the property like a stone and wood water tower that was fed by a windmill pump and gravity fed back down I thought that was kinda cool,

the two artifacts that are original to Sequoyah other then the cabin itself are the spinning wheel and the plow is what the tour guide said 

the visitors center and gift shop was built by the Blair family and they had built it off the side of Sequoyah’s cabin and plumbed into his original chimney in their add on that’s why there’s a random fireplace on the outside of the cabin, 

the WPA removed the Blair family’s add on since it was not part of the original structure 

anyways I might have missed some stuff but I made sure to take lots of pictures of all the plaques for anyone that wanted to read them, 

Here’s the second part with his cabin pictures 

You still find em all over around here in old barns and around old home stead sites

Scott

they are Single tree clips, I’ve got a bunch of odds an ends off old horse drawn stuff hanging around here

I saw a news article few years back about a dude from Australia who took a pontoon boat from the port of catoosa all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico through all the locks an dams on the Arkansas then on down the Mississippi, 

that’s where I got the idea, 

I think most of the river traffic is all commercial though big tugs and barges,

a few months ago the USS Tulsa navigated up an came into port at catoosa, I would have loved to go visit it and taken Max to go see it but I didn’t hear about it till they we’re already gone, 

I think my ol boat the USS Mesa Verde is way too big to come up to catoosa, I’ve got some pictures of her I’ll have to find an show y’all sometime

 the WW2 submarine USS Batfish is a permanent museum over at Muskogee right off the Arkansas river, every few years it makes the news when the river swells and leaves it’s banks and they scramble to keep that thing chained down lol

1 hour ago, Purple Bullet said:

You must get tired of sailing those same seven seas all the time

Nah!! We just follow the equator racing Jimmy Buffet to the good ports!!!

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum! Enjoy the madness!

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum! Your work looks awesome!

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum!

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum!

thanks y’all, I’ve already got piles of sucker rod around but it’s hard to turn down more when it shows up, 

im gonna have to make some sucker rod doggy bags for everyone on the next hammer in!!! Lol

Bahaha! 

actually funny you say that, the port of catoosa is a couple hours from me and could probably throw some stuff on a janky ol Craigslist pontoon boat and float through all the locks an dams on the Arkansas river till I hit the Mississippi and just fish my way down close to y’all!!! 

I’d need need lift from the river to the hammer in though!!! Lol

A welder I know, who builds a lot of corals and fence stopped by the shop an visited and gave me a pile of sucker rod ends and cut offs 1-2 foot lengths

Sounds awesome! I wish y’all was closer I’d try to get down there, 

I’m no professional smith by no means but I am self employed, 

I charged $75 an hour In My repair shop as a minimum

regardless of what I’m doin or how short of time it took, it’s a $45 minimum fee for handhelds, $75 for everything else as a rule 

time, tools, parts, materials, consumables, insurance, fuel, employees, rainy days, dealing with the IRS and many more things figure into $75 per hour and I still don’t make enough to set back for retirement….

like was said before I can barely hire help for $10 an hour here so I’d go bankrupt an loose my house shop an everything else if I tried charging that 

if this isn’t your sole income and your blacksmithing for fun then I’d still charge at least $60 an hour like George said, 

but if I was gonna do smithin as a living I’d be $75 and or above 

that might sound crazy but there’s shops charging $125 an hour for the same work I do on machines not 30-45 minutes from my shop!

if someone wants to hire you to do custom work I see no reason you can’t charge $60 an hour for it plus materials, fuel ect..

Happy New Year’s Eve MacLeod!!! An to everyone else!

Mail man just ran, he walked up to the gate an handed me a box an said “I dunno whatcha got in there but it’s heavy” lol

a surprise from a member here on the forum, I’ll let them speak up if they want too,

its big ol heavy duty bowl swage!!!

thank you very much!!!!

Imma have to try it out a make a yarn bowl for Ash!!!

Sweet chain Will!!!

maybe hang some bird feeders or wind chimes?

Got the little forge cured this morning, piled up some bricks I had on the one that came with the kit and played around with some different steel to see how long it took to heat up

i heated up 1/4” square bar in just a few seconds, then some 5/8” round in a minute or so and then 7/8” sucker rod in a few minutes

this was a fun little project I might make myself another gas forge later

One thing I did notice is it’s pretty loud it sounds like a rocket ship engine! 

I think imma order some of the ITC-100 from Mr Volcano to see what kinda difference it makes

I dunno much about gas forges but over all I’d definitely recommend this for someone wanting a kit with everything in the box ready to put together, the instructions are very straightforward and easy to understand, if I can put it together then anyone can! Lol

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum!

Like George said, Jennifer is still an active member here so you’re in luck just shoot her a PM! 

it might take a day or two but she will get back with you!

On the other hand……. You might wanna buzz around the forum a check out all the how toos!!

never know you might wanna try firing up a forge yourself and making a few trivets too! 

disclaimer: once you get started forging you may not be able to stop!!!! Lol

Got the second coat of the satanite in the little volcano forge,

And got it drying out infront of the milk house heater, 

I guess I’ll figure out the curing process tomorrow morning 

Thanks Les

the hammer eye punch is made by some company called Bonbo, it came from amazon, it’s not quite as nice a quality as the German made Picard tools

but I think with a little cleaning up it will make a nice tool!

4 hours ago, JHCC said:

some bars of O-1

I never heard tell of that one, of course until Thomas started explaining I never understood what 1018 an 4030 an all those others was either lol

is O1 some kinda fancy alloy or something?

Les

im excited to play with it, I never messed with a gas rig so it’s gonna be all new territory for me!

On the blower I don’t really need it an I’ll never use it,

I’ve got plenty other champions already settin around here that I don’t use, I just grabbed it incase someone else needed or wanted it,

So that being said, if you need a spare or three for yours just hop in the truck and run up here!!!
I’ll load you up!!! They will look so much better settin in your yard than mine!!! Lol

I think Ash thinks I’m trying to open a blower museum here in peavine!

I like that Axe John! Imma have to try that sometime!

No forging for me today, but I did read the fancy laminated instructions on putting together this little volcano forge an started on it, got it drying out in front of a milk house heater

Also I had a guy stop by the shop bout 30 minutes ago right before I locked up, he had a champion 400 settin in the back of the truck…. An now it’s setttin in my yard along with the train load of others…

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum!

Hey now!! that’s a pretty slick lookin time piece!!! MJ!

Santa brought me a couple things a Mr volcano forge a Picard embossing hammer and a hammer eye punch

the hammer eye punch has a ruff grinding from the factory so imma need to clean it up a little but I can’t wait to try em out!

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

What does Max think of his train whistle

Lol

mystery solved! 

he really likes the steam whistle Jerry!

that was the fist present I gave to him Christmas morning when he got up!

thank you!